common centaury en · NOUN
Meanings
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(uncountable) A pink-flowering plant of species Centaurium erythraea, native to Europe, where it is used in traditional medicine.
The initial advice of Dioscorides on centaury is unclear as he refers to the 'small useless root' of common centaury but then recommends the pounded root as a plaster for injuries, and to cleanse old ulcers to form a scar.
2010 November 12, Graeme Tobyn, Alison Denham, Margaret Whitelegg, chapter 13, in The Western Herbal Tradition E-Book: The Western Herbal Tradition E-Book, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 137:Common or lesser centaury is rarely used by medical practitioners; yet it might be employed as an indigenous substitute for gentian.
1840, Jonathan Pereira, The Elements of Materia Medica: Vegetable and animal materia medica, page 899:
Synonyms
European centaury · feverwort · blushwort · lesser centaury
Translations (8)
ca pericó (Centaurium erythraea) · grc λιβάδιον (Centaurium erythraea) · it cacciafebbre (Centaurium erythraea) · pt centáurea-menor (Centaurium erythraea) · it centaurea minore (Centaurium erythraea) · ca herba de Santa Margarida (Centaurium erythraea) · grc ἀμάραντον (Centaurium erythraea) · cs zeměžluč okolíkatá (Centaurium erythraea)